[Last updated (6/1/2016, 11:50 p.m.) with news of the professor’s identity.]
A professor at the University of California at Los Angeles was shot to death on Wednesday by a gunman who then killed himself. According to several news sources, the assailant was an unidentified current or former student.
The faculty member was William S. Klug, a professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering whose research focused on computational biomechanics. The Los Angeles Times reported he was 39 and had two children.
The Times quoted a colleague as saying, “You cannot ask for a nicer, gentler, sweeter, and more supportive guy than William Klug.” A former Ph.D. student described him as great mentor.
The shooting occurred on Wednesday morning in an office in a UCLA building called Engineering IV. In the aftermath, amid rumors of multiple gunmen, an army of law-enforcement officials converged on the campus, which was put on lockdown.
Some students told the Associated Press that they had run into trouble locking doors to some of the classrooms in which they were sheltering. The university said later it would investigate that concern.
The lockdown was lifted after the police concluded that the only gunman was dead. A weapon and a possible suicide note were found with the body of the shooter, who was still not being identified by the authorities late Wednesday.
Classes were canceled but will resume on Thursday, except engineering classes, which were canceled for the rest of the week, according to a statement on the university’s website. Final exams are next week.
UCLA’s chancellor, Gene D. Block, said in a statement posted on the website that counseling was available for students, faculty, and staff who wanted it.
The shooting is only the latest such incident to erupt at a college in recent years, which have seen attacks by gunmen on campuses as varied as Umpqua Community College, Delta State University, the University of California at Santa Barbara, the University of Alabama at Huntsville, and Virginia Tech.
If it turns out to be true that the UCLA gunman was a current or former student, it would only exacerbate faculty fears, expressed in a recent Chronicle survey, of the challenges they face in dealing with armed students, especially in states that allow licensed gun owners to carry their weapons onto college campuses. California is not among the states that permit campus carry.
